“Choguk: ‘SK Group’s Choi Tae-won and Roh So-young’s assets are profits from collusive crimes'”

Jo Guk, the representative, posts on SNS “
“No interest in Choi Tae-won’s affair.”, Jo Guk, the representative of the Jo Guk Innovation Party, argued that more attention should be paid to the fact that the property acquired by the couple in the divorce lawsuit between Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, and Noh So-young, Director of Nabi Art Center, is considered to be the proceeds of illegal activities related to slush funds and collusive ties, rather than the amount of alimony and property division.
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, On the morning of the 2nd, the representative posted on social media (SNS), saying, “I am not interested in the issue of love affair between the two people,” emphasizing that what is important to him is not the amount of alimony and property division, but the court’s judgment that the property acquired by the couple is the proceeds of crimes related to slush funds and collusive ties.
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Jo Guk Innovation Party Jo Guk Representative [Image Source=Yonhap News],
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, The representative analyzed, “The Seoul High Court Family Division 2 concluded that it is reasonable to consider that the 6 promissory notes totaling 300 billion won that Chairman Choi Jong-hyun (the late founder of SK and father of Chairman Choi Tae-won) gave to former President Roh Tae-woo in 1991-1992 were used directly by Roh at the time, mixing them with the personal funds of the late Chairman Choi in 1991, exercising disposal rights.”
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, The representative further questioned, “Without the help of his father-in-law Roh Tae-woo, SK would not have become the current telecommunication conglomerate. Although rumors about slush funds were circulating at the time, the prosecutors did not investigate at all,” and raised doubts about whether it is right that the couple Choi Tae-won and Noh So-young inherited these proceeds in full, as the Anti-Corruption and Bribery Regulation Act was enacted in 2001 and does not apply to illegal activities before then.
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, The representative added, “What we should be more concerned about is not Chairman Choi Tae-won’s affair or the amount of property division between the couple, but the origin of this huge property and the collusion of the prosecutors at the time,” and also emphasized the need to monitor whether companies benefiting from collusive ties under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration are being investigated by the prosecutors.
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Choi Chairman and Noh Director attending the divorce lawsuit appeal trial held at Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 16th of last month [Image Source=Yonhap News],
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, Earlier, the Seoul High Court Family Division 2 ruled in a divorce lawsuit between Chairman Choi and Director Noh on the 30th of last month that “the plaintiff (Chairman Choi) must pay the defendant (Director Noh) 20 billion won in alimony and 1,380.8 billion won in property division.” This is a significantly increased amount compared to the alimony of 1 billion won and property division of 665 billion won acknowledged in the first trial in December 2022, making it the largest property division amount known to date. The court estimated the total property of the two individuals to be around 4.115 trillion won and determined that the property should be divided between Chairman Choi and Director Noh at 65% and 35%, respectively.
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, The court recognized Director Noh’s contribution to the joint marital property, which includes SK shares owned by Chairman Choi. The court stated that “the SK shares were acquired during the marriage and it is considered that a significant amount of funds flowed in from former President Roh Tae-woo to the plaintiff’s father, Choi Jong-hyun, during Governor Choi’s acquisition of Pacific Securities or entry into the mobile communication business,” and that “Choi Jong-hyun played a role as a shield during the process and indirectly contributed to the successful management activities of (SK Group).”